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INSTEAD
of pursuing active procurement of rice imports, the
Department of Agriculture (DA) must use the scarce
financial resources of the government to build up
sufficient rice supply from domestic production, a
militant legislator said Thursday.
Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran of Anakpawis made the
call even as he opposed the DA’s plan of massive rice
importation.
“We
cannot rely forever on rice imports as rice-exporting
countries are cutting back on their export quotas. The
government must address the rice-supply issue based on
short-term and long-term solutions,” said Beltran.
“The
problem lies in the national policies. It is urgent for
the government to consider redirection of policies that
will maximize the utilization of our rice
self-sufficiency potentials, in the interest of millions
of rice producers and Filipinos. Heavy importation of
rice staples further highlights the country’s severe
food insecurity,” he added.
Beltran
also asked Congress to discuss House Resolution 521,
urging the national government to stop the policy of
relying on massive rice importation and institutionalize
a program of developing the rice industry.
The
resolution said that the rice industry continue to
suffer from underdevelopment because of backward
production, exploitation of small rice farmers and lack
of necessary support infrastructure such as irrigation,
postharvest facilities and farm-to-market roads.
Beltran
said the domestic rice industry became unsustainable
mainly because of the government’s dependence on
imported supply.
He noted
that rice industry in the country is small-scale with an
average production unit of 2.5 hectares. Production is
largely manual or nonmechanized with majority of rice
farmers still using carabao farming and only one-third
of rice lands are irrigated and postharvest facilities
are poorly developed, he added.
“Unbridled rice importation using the present rice
crisis as pretext will not induce our rice farmers to
produce more and meet our consumption needs and
self-reliance targets. On the contrary, it will move
them to abandon rice production not only because of high
costs but also because their products are bumped off in
the domestic market,” Beltran said.
Beltran
said the present rice crisis is the coming into full
circle of the vicious cycle of underdevelopment and
underproduction of the rice industry because of
government neglect, mindless land use conversion and
overreliance on massive rice imports.
“The
current situation, which the Arroyo administration
insists on calling rice shortage and price crisis is but
the open eruption of the crisis of the rice industry,
which, for years, has been contained and hidden by the
government with the camouflage of massive rice
importation,” he said. |
